Prince of the Dolls
by LunaPatchouli
Summary: Based on the Nutcracker Prince, only in a modern setting. Clary is still sad over the disappearance of her first love Rudy 4 years prior, but her Christmas trip to Austria gets turned upside down when her Godfather, Uncle Meyer, gives her the gift of a Nutcracker.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Christmas had changed forever for Clary Bright the year she turned 14, and her Godfather, Uncle Nicholas Meyer, had announced to the family that his nephew Rudy had disappeared without a trace on their trip to Mongolia.

Christmas was simply a time to remember when she lost the boy she had her first crush on, her first love in a sense. But Clary went through it with a smile, like she always did.

Clary had always been in charge of giving out the wreaths her grandmother Clara made every year to the people of the small Austria village she lived in, and that didn't change when Clary visited from her American college for the holiday. "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Steiner."

"And Merry Christmas to you Clarissa, and your family. Tell your Grandparents that I'll be a little late to the party. Last minute presents for the young ones, you see. " Mrs. Steiner replied joyfully, accepting the girl's gift before closing the door against the cold winter weather. Clary nodded and turned on her heels to walk back towards her Grandparent's Austrian home.

After the end of the Second World War and fall of the Third Reich, the Fuchs family immigrated to the United States for a better life, yet their relatives who stayed in Austria willed their home to them and made it possible for the family to meet every other Christmas in the quaint little town of Moser.

The young woman walked up to the window of the toy store her Godfather owned and gazed through the frosted glass in wonder at all the contraptions he had made. Swans swam on a crystal lake and small coupled figurines danced in a magical ballroom as a band played a sweet yuletide melody. Uncle Meyer had always been fascinated with the mechanics of 17th century automatons. "Merry Christmas, _Prinzessin_." Uncle Meyer greeted from the door to his shop; his accent surfacing like it did when he spoke English.

Uncle Meyer was always in a good mood, smelling of pipe tobacco and cologne, and his presence made Clary smile. "Merry Christmas to you too, Uncle Meyer. We're going to be lighting the Christmas tree soon, so I came over to ask if you wanted to walk back with me." The girl asked. "It will be colder later tonight and we don't want you getting sick on Christmas. That would suck."

"That is very kind of you, my dear." Meyer said, patting the girl on his head and putting hand on her shoulder. "But there is something I must do first. For Rudy." Suddenly, Clary's smile faded until her rosy lips created a thin line, and Meyer knew that face meant tears to come. "I know you miss him too, _Prinzessin_." The man sighed and looked the girl over. "You know, he reminds me a lot of you, Clarissa. Now, you better be running along, you don't want to keep you parents and grandparents waiting. Then both of us will go to bed without supper."

That made Clary smile a little through the tears that brimmed her eyes, and she nodded. "Bye Uncle Meyer!" She called as she was about to turn around the corner. "Come as soon as you can, okay?"

"Of course my dear!" He called back, waving until the girl disappeared. Taking his pipe from the pocket of his jacket, the Austrian man struck a match and took a few puffs before exhaling, thinking all he while. "Perhaps tonight is the night, my boy…" The man said to himself, and nodded, a tiny bit if gold dust coming off of his hand as he waved it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello everybody! hope everyone's having a good weekend, and I hope you liked the first chapter o this story!**

 **I'll be posting a new chapter every weekend so look forward to it :)**

Chapter Two

Clary took her time walking home, liking the feeling of how the cold created a tingling effect on her lips, cheeks and nose, leaving a rosy glow which was very contrary in comparison to her usual pale complexion. Her newly-dyed violet hair and stormy blue eyes did nothing but accentuate her skin tone.

Over the fence, across the icy fields that were usually left overgrown, through the small wood where wolfs howled at night, then she was through the dark iron gate and up to the porch, where the door was opened for her by her least favourite relative. "Well it's about time." Her cousin Louise Winkler said, opening the door and stepping aside, far enough to not get snow on her new party dress. "Everyone is waiting! Goodness Clarissa, you're an adult now, be responsible for once! And violet hair? Really?"

Clary shut the door and scoffed, "Lay off, Louise. It's Christmas so try not to be such a tight-ass." The 21 year old inhaled quickly in a gasp before strutting away to the parlour and shutting the door behind her.

Pulling off her warm woollen coat, hat, mittens and scarf and putting them in the front wardrobe, Clary jumped at the sudden pressure on the back of her calve. She looked down and smiled at the large black and tanned hound that her Grandy kept for the not so often hare of fox hunt. She laughed lightly. "Oh Schwarz, you know we would start without you." She leaned to give the hound and affectionate pat. "Me on the other hand…" Clary continued, walking to the closed door and opening it, the hound at her side with her hand on its head companionably. "Come on; let's see the Christmas tree together."

She walked over to join her family at the base of the tree. "Oh Mama, it's the most beautiful tree we've ever had." Her mother Angela exclaimed, pulling the small older woman into a side hug. The tree rose to the high ceiling of the mansion's parlour room and the candle styled lights flickered with a warm and soothing glow.

"Every tree is the most beautiful we've ever had." Her Aunt Liesel exclaimed, hugging her daughter Louise from behind, much to her chagrin.

"It is certainly the tallest, Sugar Plum!" Her husband, Christian, agreed, with each hand on his wife and daughter's shoulders.

"And the widest!" Grandy Hans added.

"Can we look at our presents now, Papa?" Clary's youngest cousin Adler asked with glowing blue eyes.

"No patience." Clary said lovingly just loud enough for Schwartz and her mother to hear, and the woman nodded in agreement. Adler took his father's laugh as a yes and opened his first gift. It was a set with six soldiers, a canon and over 20 cannon balls. Adler took them out in awe and started to play with them immediately.

"Are these?" Clary reached into a box and pulled out a pair of pale pink ballet shoes, made specifically for point. "Oh my God, mum thank you." She stood and squeezed her mother in a loving and thankful embrace, before the limelight was stolen once again by Louise.

"Mama, Papa. This dress is perfect, it's stunning!" She exclaimed, holding up a bright pink dress with a sky blue sash. "I'm going to go put it on now!"

"I'm going to do my best to pass the auditions for Romeo and Juliet when I get back on campus." Clary exclaimed, slipping on her new dance shoes and doing a few pirouettes around the room on point.

"I know you will." Her mother replied, hands over her heart in pride.

"Our little ballerina." Granny Clara sighed t her husband, sipping her Sherry and remembering when she was the Prima Ballerina of her company.

 **Please R &R and tell me what you think and if I should keep going! **

**Later Loves,**

 **Luna**

 **xx**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello lovely readers! sorry for not updating sooner, I was dealing with some stuff, but a big thank you to** Phoenixfire Produtions **for sending me a message and getting me to start writing again. Big thanks! (check them out, they're cool)**

Chapter Three

Below the twinkling lights of the tree, Adler played with his new toys while his parents and their guests munched on fruit cake and drank punch that someone had spiked with numerous alcohols when the servants weren't looking. Their bi-annual Christmas Party always ended up like this, but no one had been sent to the hospital in four years.

"Aren't you having a good time Schwartz?" Clary asked the dog who looked half asleep with its head in her lap. The hound groaned, and she stroked his head. "Neither am I." She repeated those words quietly as she looked around.

Just then, a gust of wind blew through the parlour, making Christmas cards and paper decorations fly about the room and causing the guests to stop in their tracks. 3 or 4 pure white doves flew out of the doors that had been blown open and landed on the top of the doll cabinet, and colourful smoke engulfed the doorway.

Then, Uncle Meyer appeared and revealed his present to the members of the Leitner house and their friends. A beautiful castle with swans swimming around it, all in the 17th century design. All the guests stood in awe at the creation. "It's incredible, Nicholas!" Angela gasped, running to hug her late husband's friend.

"Your pleasure is my reward, my dear." He replied as Clary helped push the castle out of the doorway and into the corner next to the tree and Meyer sat by the fire again.

The hired musicians started playing once more and couples started dancing, including Louise and her beau William, which made Clary irritated because her cousin hadn't stopped flaunting her lover and mouthing _Forever Alone_ at her when no one was looking.

As she walked past the tree again, Clary noticed a wooden doll wearing black pants, a bright red coat with gold buttons and a tall hat nestled under the branches in an open box. Clary stared at him in wonder after taking it in her hands, and then looked over to see Uncle Meyer looking at her from where he was sitting by the fire, smoking his pipe. "Uncle Meyer, you brought him?"

"You like him?" He asked, and she nodded. "He is a Nutcracker."

"Can I see?" Adler asked, raising his arms at her with sleepy eyes that matched her own. Clary nodded and handed the young boy the doll, watching him look at it with wide eyes. "Can I show mommy?" The girl nodded again, and smiled as she watched the seven year old rush towards his mother.

"Adler!" His sister cried when he bumped into her and William dancing, dropping the nutcracker and making his arm pop out of the socket. "Watch where you're going!" Louise kicked the doll away towards the second fire place, and it skidded into the flames followed by Clary rushing to salvage it.

"Uh oh." Adler said quietly, tears spotting his eyes and his mother picked him up and began to scold his sister.

"Louise!" Clary cried. "Look what you've done!" Retrieving the Nutcracker with the fire poker, Clary tapped the flames away with the handkerchief her Godfather pushed into her hand as Uncle Christian told the guest to resume their merry-making.

"There, there, dear." Meyer said as Clary cradled the singed and broken Nutcracker, the hound whining at her side, nudging her arms with his muzzle. "Come. Come and sit by the fire with me." She did, allowing his arm to wrap around her shoulders and guide her to a chaise longue, where they sat side by side. "Would you like to hear how the Nutcracker came to look the way he does?" Clary nodded, and settled into the chaise longue to hear what the man had to say.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Uncle Meyer told Clary that the Nutcracker had formally been the Prince of Dolls and soon-to-be ruler of the Kingdom of Träumen. The prince had been careless and self-centered, as most boys his age were. His attitudes lead his father, the King, to pronouncing the Mouse Queen as acting monarch until his son accepted his responsibilities as ruler. The Mouse Queen decided that she wanted her own son to be king and put a spell on the prince, transforming him into a Nutcracker and exiling him. "The land was thrown into war, and the Mouse Queen perished as well as the Good King, leaving the Mouse Queen's son as only possible ruler.

"That's a terrible story, Uncle Meyer." Clary exclaimed, tying the handkerchief around the Nutcracker's arm like a sling after having cleaned the ash off of his wooden form. She refused to admit that the prince reminded her of Rudy. "The Prince should have become ruler. But now he's just… Prince of the Dolls."

"What's so wrong with that?" He asked lightly. "He shall rule over the Dolls in The Kingdom of Träumen." Uncle Raymond explained.

"If there is such a place." Clary sighed, scratching Schwartz behind the ear, making him content. "And even if there were, he would still be a Nutcracker."

"Wrong! The spell will be broken!" Meyer said in a louder tone, making the girl jump slightly. "If he slays the Mouse King, he will return to his true form and become King!"

"And shall win the hand of a fair young maiden." The girl said in a fake dreamy voice, pressing her face against the hounds.

"It is late; you should get some rest my dear." Uncle Meyer said, rubbing soothing circles into the girl's back.

That seemed like a good idea.

Night came quickly enough, and soon the guests left and house became silent, just like in _The Night before Christmas_ , but sleep refused to ingulph Clary in its warm embrace. She just sat by her window watching snow fall, listening to her music box playing music from the dance of the Waltz of the Flower Faeries, and writing lyrics to it. Schwartz made a large yawned as the girl patted his black and tan pelt.

Then, although it could have been her imagination working overtime, Clary heard a noise coming from down stairs, and felt vibrations through the floorboards of the old house through the point shoes she hadn't bothered to take off. She grabbed her phone and enabled the flashlight app before walking out of her room and slowly down the stairs. After the last step, Clary realised that the noise was coming from the parlour room, so the girl opened the door cautiously and walked inside, closing the door behind her. She placed the phone so the light shown in the direction she wanted near the doll cabinet, and opened the doors.

"Hello, my Nutcracker." She said sweetly, smiling as she took the doll between her pale cold hands. "Poor Nutcracker, Louise ruins everything if it isn't about her..." She sighed, and looked at the doll again, pretending him to be real in her mind. "I wrote a song about you. Would you like to hear it?" She waited a few moments, imagining a reply in her head. "Oh, why of course your highness, how thoughtless of me for even asking that."

Clary suddenly felt foolish for singing to a doll, but shook off that feeling while swiping her phone to find the song she had written the words too, Waltz of the Flowers, and rose onto the tips of her feet to dance. But she wasn't just thinking of the Nutcracker, she thought also of her lost love, and what she would say to him should he magically return.

If you could hear me now

If I could only get through

I'd open my heart, whisper my dreams

Share all my secrets with you

If you could hear me now

Waiting for someone to hold

Someone who's brave, who's never afraid

Someone as strong as the knights of old

Thinking some glissades would match the music, she did so while singing the chorus.

 **Hi, little side note. These lyrics aren't mine, they're from the movie The Nutcracker Prince, but I tweaked them a little bit to match the story :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

 _I'll save this dance for you_

 _I hope it lasts forever_

 _So let one star shine through_

 _And make my wish come true_

 _I'll save this dance for you_

 _We'll make it last forever_

 _So let this love shine through_

 _Let me be with you_

Clary gasped mid step when she looked in the mirror, and saw her Uncle Meyer sitting up on the Grand-Father clock. At first, Clary was scared nearly to tears. Then when she realized it was simply her godfather playing a prank, she laughed nervously before telling him to come down and stop trying to frighten her. But her thoughts were distracted for she started to hear squeaking sounds all around the room.

Then, looking back at Meyer on top of the clock, the man looked at her mischievously before opening his cloak in a flourish and sending golden dust to every corner of the room. Mice then appeared at the base of the clock and started to run around the parlour, but Clary was in so much shock she could not make a sound.

Then, a sword cut through the long cloth that covered a small table by the clock, making Clary jump again, and a giant malicious looking rat appeared, laughing madly as if he were a mad scientist having just created Frankenstein. His eyes were red, as if blinded by crimson hatred.

He climbed onto the lounge chair and cried to his minions to salute their monarch, to which the smaller mice began to cheer _long live the Mouse King, long live the Mouse King!_ Then, Clary turned and noticed that the gold dust had hit the doll cabinet as well, and that the dolls and toys were coming alive one by one.

"Where am I?" Asked the Nutcracker, from where Clary had replaced him in the cabinet.

"Get up!" Mrs. Fitz, an older doll, cried. "Get up, you're in danger!"

"I've shrunk!" He whispered, not hearing the servant doll and looking at his hands in disbelief.

"Hurry!" Mrs. Fitz cried again. "The Mouse King is after you!" Then he laid eyes on Marie-Ange for the first time. Her blue eyes were wide with fear and her pale violet hair shone like star light. She looked at once familiar too he yet also a complete stranger

"Tonight, we will get our revenge!" The Mouse King roared to his cheering underlings, who appeared to be armed with whatever they could find in the kitchen. "Yesterday; King of Mice! Tonight; King of Träumen! Tomorrow; King of all!" Letting out another malicious laugh, he rallied his troops to form a thin line before him.

"I don't remember anything after that Queen put a spell on me..." The Nutcracker said.

Another doll, Claire, scoffed. "You are The Prince of Dolls, aren't you?"

"Please Nutcracker," Mrs. Fitz pleaded. "Do your best."

"Hey, Nutcracker!" The Mouse King taunted from his place on the chair. "Come on and meet your fate, Prince of The Dolls!"

The Nutcracker gasped at the magnitude of the Mouse King, he was huge. Then looking from Claire, to Mrs. Fitz, and then falling to Clary. The girl nodded to him, a silent way of saying she would fight with him. "I'll do my best." He announced, then jumped down from the second level and cried out. "Attention! Everyone in the toy cabinet! We must defend ourselves against the Mouse King and his followers."

"Nutcracker, you don't have a sword." Clary remarked, helping Mrs. Fitz and Claire down from the cabinet.

"Sword or no sword, he still has to save us." Claire yelled.

"Troupes, to the front!" The Nutcracker ordered.

 **Hi, little side note. These lyrics aren't mine, they're from the movie The Nutcracker Prince, but I tweaked them a little bit to match the story :)**


End file.
